Am I in my second childhood, reading comics again? Guilty as charged. Though have I left my first childhood? I remember a five year period of not setting foot in a movie theater. The last movie I saw before that period? Batman Forever (Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face, and Jim Carey as the Riddler). The first movie I saw after that? X-Men.
Are comics just time wasters? They can be. Or they can contain gems within the action for you to consider. This is definitely the latter category.
Artwork is awesome. The story likewise not only is exciting and has plot twist after plot twist, but it examines deeper psychological, philosophical, and maybe even theological issues. Such as our treatment of others. Such as whether power corrupts. Such as ... ah, but to go further would involve spoilers.
So if you are thinking of wanting to read this, you can pass. For those who've already read this or those content to see my thoughts, continue on.
I mentioned above the quality of the artwork. True, it is good. But is there a reason super-heroines and super-villainesses' need to shop at Victoria's Secret for their costumes? And it never really changed in comics. I remember the gals in Legion of Superheroes getting new outfits that were meant to wow the guys.
Now to the story. There were superheroes I found a bit boring personality wise (though I read their comics anyway). Top of the list was Superman, with Captain America and Cyclops right behind. Since this is marvel, the Man of Steel is absent, but the other two are front and center as the main focal points.
I will admit - the Avengers movies changed my view on Captain America. Chris Evans' portrayal made me a Cap fan (which is ironic, because I didn't like Evans as the Human Torch). Then, I re-read some of the Avengers from the '70's and '80's and gained an appreciation for Cap. I'll deal with that in another blog, but now let me add that I never was a Cyclops fan, and this story confirmed that.
Another brief digression. I was reading comics regularly in '73 when they had a three month battle between the Avengers and the Defenders. It is interesting comparing this with the Avengers vs. the X-Men. The former was one on one, while the latter was group A vs. group B. Two Avengers were injured in their battle with the Defenders: The Scarlet Witch got hurt unintentionally as a result of the Silver Surfer stirring up a volcano, while the Swordsman was shot by a bad guy. Not so nice here. In the '73 battle, the two sides realized they had been duped by the bad guys (Dormamu and Loki) and united together to fight; there was no villains manipulating here, and the battle didn't end until one side was defeated.
The plot is that Phoenix is returning. Phoenix almost destroyed the world when it took Jean Grey (Cyclops' wife), with Grey killing herself to save the world. Captain America and the Avengers see the threat and want to take the girl Hope who Phoenix is coming for as a threat. Cyclops, on the other hand, sees the return of Phoenix to be a benefit to the mutants. Cyclops was so single focused on that he almost destroyed the planet as a result.
I mentioned there were items to point out. This story shows how depraved men can be. Hope wanted to be killed rather than become the Phoenix. Emma Frost wanted Cyclops to stop her before she reverted to her dark side, which Cyclops failed to do.
One side I'll mention is that of a couple of troubled marriages. Marvel fans may be familiar with the House of M story where the Scarlet Witch killed her husband The Vision (who I guess came back to life - he's an Android, after all, and we're dealing with comic books). The story starts the Vision telling the Scarlet Witch the Avengers Manor is not home. Later in the story, he's carrying her unconscious form from the battle, but no development on their relationship. Also in the story - X-man Storm at first fought with her fellow mutants against the Avengers, including her husband the Black Panther. Storm later sees how bad the mutants were in power and offers to help the Avengers, only to learn the Black Panther annulled their marriage. No indication of any reconciliation.
One last issue is one I'm concerned with in the real world, and that is the ability of oppressed groups to come into power and be at least as oppressive as the former oppressors.
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